


Home is Where Laughter Lives

by ElReyCiervo



Series: Winter is for Warmth and Soul [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: (He's Learning about the Magic of the Holiday Spirit), Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Can Feel Emotions, Connor Deserves Happiness, Connor Laughs for the First Time, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Gen, Gen Work, Hank Anderson & Connor Friendship, Holidays, Home, Male Friendship, NEraWinter2020, Post-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Prompt Fic, Ugly Holiday Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28099737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElReyCiervo/pseuds/ElReyCiervo
Summary: Connor and Hank sit in the kitchen, warm drinks in hand, and talk about the holidays. Cue ugly sweater(s), Sumo being the best good boy, and Connor's first laughMy first fic for the Detroit: New Era server's writing event, New Era: Festival of Prompts! (Prompt: Laughter | Home)
Relationships: Hank Anderson & Connor
Series: Winter is for Warmth and Soul [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2058624
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44
Collections: New ERA Discord: Festival of Prompts





	Home is Where Laughter Lives

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Detroit: Become Human
> 
> Rating: G
> 
> Words: 2,250
> 
> Notes: Soooo I totally have been focused on the RK17cember writing event, so I kinda forgot about the Detroit New Era Winter writing event, lol. But anyway, I hope you like this! I need to write more of Hank and Connor just bonding together. Oh, and Sumo! Can’t forget about the bestest boy Sumo <3
> 
> Prompt: Laughter | Home

It was just short of a month after the revolution, and it was time for winter holidays.

This would be the first holiday that Connor was going to experience—Thanksgiving was a blur of work since criminals did not sleep—and he was excited. Christmas was about two weeks away, but his excitement for it grew every day. He had done quite a lot of research about the different holidays during the time of December, and all of them fascinated him. As he was living with Hank, Christmas was the one that his friend personally observed, so it was going to be the one that Connor was going to experience for the first time. Perhaps in the next coming year he could find people that celebrated Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and Yule personally so he could experience them personally. 

If he were asked just a few weeks ago that he was going to be celebrating a human holiday, he would have blinked at the person and told them it was preposterous. He would have said he was a machine and machines did not celebrate anything. That was before all the events that changed his life. Now, he was a deviant, he was alive. Even though he still had anxiety about the multitudes upon multitudes of choices he now could make for himself, he had the _ability_ to choose now. He did not have to follow orders if he did not want to.

There was so much of the world that was his to experience, and Christmas was one of the holidays he wanted to do so himself. 

“Sumo, you’re gonna get even fatter than you already are, you big oaf,” Hank chided noncommittally at the large dog as he padded around the kitchen asking for more treats.

While Hank was making himself some hot chocolate on the stove, Connor was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of warm thirium in his hands. He could not drink ‘festive’ human drinks, but the temperature of the thirium made it feel like a pleasant illusion. The colorful Christmas-themed mug it was in added to the mood. Additionally, the decorations around the house were fun. When he had discovered what Christmas decorations had been about, Connor had asked Hank if they could decorate the house. Hank had originally not planned to do anything for Christmas, but the android was persistent when he wanted to be. Luck was on his side as the older man already had some old decorations in his garage. It was not much, but that was okay. The colorful tinsel and garlands hanging in the kitchen and a few more around the house made Connor feel more in the ‘holiday spirit’ as people said.

He smiled when he watched Sumo bump his nose into Hank’s leg, wanting affection. Before Hank could fondly grumble at him again, Connor patted his leg to get the dog’s attention. Sumo perked up his ears before making his way to Connor, placing his large head in his lap. Connor turned away from his thirium to pet Sumo and scratch behind his ears. On a whim five seconds later, he squished his face—Sumo did not seem to care, just enjoying all the attention he could get. He was such a good boy.

“You’ve already spoiled him rotten, Con,” Hank pointed his whisk at him. “Don’t make it worse.”

“Nonsense, Sumo is perfect.” Still making eye-contact with him, Connor leaned down to hug Sumo’s neck, aiming both of their faces at Hank. He booted up one of his…’tweaked’ protocols for two seconds, and he knew from Tina telling him so that said protocol should be called his Puppydog Face Program.

His lips perked upward when Hank groaned and quickly turned away from them both. “You’re a menace, I swear.”

“I am sure that I have no idea what you mean.”

“And I’m sure you don’t know how to lie either, right?”

Connor hid his grin behind his mouth as he sat back up in his chair. Sumo seemed to decide that Connor was, at the moment, better at giving him attention, so he popped his body right on top of his feet. The big lovable boy. If he were human, Connor’s feet would have fallen asleep, but being an android had its advantages after all.

There was a comfortable quiet between the two of them as Hank finished making his hot chocolate. Connor looked out the window. The snow was falling calmly outside, blanketing everything it touched in large swaths of white. He held a great…dislike for the snow, so it only made him more thankful to be inside the warm house. Before his stress levels could spike up from unpleasant memories he had associated with snow, he gripped his mug tighter and looked back at Hank. The other man looked calm, now finished making his hot chocolate. He had an old band shirt on, not surprisingly of Knights of the Black Death, with light-colored sweatpants. On his feet were reindeer slippers, which had taken Connor by the greatest surprise when Hank had first whipped them out. He did not think Hank liked to wear that sort of thing, but all Hank had told him with a fond, yet sad smile was that Cole had liked it when he wore them as they were ‘funny-looking’. Right now, though, was the calmest Connor had ever seen the man.

It made joy well up from his pump.

Hot chocolate now in hand, Hank sat himself at the table with Connor. He looked at him up and down and chuckled. “If someone asked me last month if an android was gonna sit in my kitchen, petting my dog, and drinking blue blood from a Christmas mug, I would have laughed at them and told them to get off whatever drugs they were on.” What an echo from Connor’s earlier thoughts.

Said android lifted said Christmas mug in his hand, and keeping steady eye-contact with Hank, took a long _loud_ sip from his mug. Hank snorted, which made Connor grin again. Mission accomplished. “I am sure that you are not the first person to express those same sentiments.”

Hank looked around the kitchen and then around the rest of the house. He sighed, sound a little tired and a little of something that Connor could not identify. He drummed his fingers on his own mug, and Connor was quiet as he sensed Hank was preparing his thoughts for something. After a few moments, Hank did speak up, “Wasn’t planning on doing anything for Christmas this year. Just thought it was going to be this lonely old man and his dog. Didn’t even think I was going to be here at the end of this year. To my surprise,” he paused for a beat, finding his voice. “To my surprise, a skinny mouthy android made his way into my life. So…erm, thanks.” Even through his discomfort, he gave Connor a pointed look. The thanks he expressed was much more than Connor just sitting here at the table.

The android was touched, to say the least. He knew Hank was not one for ‘mushy feels’, so he appreciated him telling him even this much. There was so much he could say in reply—mutual thanks for taking him in, a declaration that he would always be there for him, sadness that Cole could not be with him for the holiday—but all he did was reach over and pat him on the arm before simply saying, “Thank you as well. You have done much for me.”

Hank mumbled into his cup, but Connor could see him hide something that could be descried as embarrassed happiness behind a long swig of his hot chocolate. Connor rolled his eyes.

They talked about this and that for a while. Most of it about what their coworkers had been up to. Chis had been gifting the precinct with the cutest pictures of his son in various Christmas-themed outfits. Tina had been treating them with different cookies every week, and Ben had been talking about his famous eggnog recipe for the past few days. Connor could have neither the cookies nor the eggnog, but he enjoyed seeing his coworkers so spirited. Hank and Connor joked that while Gavin put up the appearances of being a semi-scrooge, he was perhaps one of the people who was most excited about the holiday. “I cannot eat human foods as are normally made during this season, but I am enjoying much of the other fun things. The decorations are pleasing to the eye, the atmosphere is festive and seems to bring out the best in people, and the idea of giving gifts to the people you care for towards the end of the month on Christmas is delightful.”

“Y’know, Con,” his tone was fond and…amused? “I think you’re forgetting something about Christmas.”

Connor blinked. What could have possible forgotten? They had decorations up, were drinking warm beverages, had each other’s company…What else could there be? The confusion must have been clear on his face because Hank just laughed. He polished off the rest of his hot chocolate before setting it down, then began walking about of the kitchen towards his bedroom. “You always know everything, so why don’t I surprise you for a change, huh? Hold tight.”

“…If you say so.” To say he was perplexed would have been an understatement.

Human tendencies still tended to confuse him, Hank’s especially. _Is there some sort of holiday secret I am not aware of because of my lack of experience?_

Before he could dwell on that any longer, he heard Hank’s footsteps approaching back to the kitchen. What Connor saw was something that stopped him in his metaphorical tracks as he had to take a long moment to process—and he meant _truly process_ —what his optics were showing him. In front of him was the Lieutenant of the DPD, dressed in one of the most ridiculous sweaters he had ever laid his optics on. And he would know—he had done is research on Christmas wear, after all. The sweater was knit in bulky stiches, chunky and lumpy. Giant blinking green and red globe ornaments decorated the middle of the sweater, wrapping around Hank’s large middle like a band of distracting traffic signals. Silver tinsel was stitched by the collar, wrists, and bottom of the sweater, reflecting the blinking green and red lights like itchy mirrors. On the shoulders were little stuffed Christmas trees that, while appearing to have originally been firmly attached, were now hanging on by the literal last threads of their lives. To make matters worse, right in the middle of the sweater was a corduroy-stitched cat and dog fighting under a Christmas tree with the caption above them reading _‘FIGHTING OVER PRESENTS’_ in Comic Sans font.

“Ta da!” He grinned full of good-humored snark, raising an arm up in a lazy pose. “You completely forgot about ugly Christmas sweaters.”

The android stared at him with wide optics before blinking slowly. He could not speak for another ten seconds. This began to worry Hank as the man dropped out of his pose and shuffled, worried. “Uh, I didn’t confuse you or anything there, did I—”

“ _Pffffff!”_ Before realizing what he was doing, a startled Connor had to slap a hand over his mouth to stifle the laughter that belted out of him. Saline leaked out of his optics and he had to wrap an arm around his middle as he hunched over himself. His shoulders shook from the force of his uncontrolled amusement and joy. His HUD was informing him that his internal temperature was rising by 1.3 degrees as he could not control his oxygen intake properly like he should. Was he dying? It felt like it. “ _Hahahaha!_ Ha-Ha-Hank! Hank, oh my rA9! What, _hahaha_ , w-what are you w-wearing?!” He could barely get out a whole sentence without breaking into more laughter.

Even through his own laughter, his audio processors could pick up on Hank breaking down into his own set of snickers. Sumo, stirred up by their excitements, jumped up from his spot on Connor’s feet—with surprising agility given his age and size—and bounced around them as if he were a puppy.

“J-Jesus, Connor,” Hank wiped a tear from his eye as he got himself back under control. Through his windedness, he sounded a bit awed, “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you laugh. You got a nice one there.”

Connor reflected on what Hank said. His chest felt light, despite his pump working at an increased rate of two percent, and his cheeks felt flushed. The synthetic muscles in his face ached from smiling so hard, unaccustomed to doing so. This time, his face flushed again, pleased by what he was hearing. “You truly think so? I thought you have said I sound weird?”

“Nah. That laugh you got there? That’s something I’d want to hear more often, ya big doof.”

“Thank you, Hank. The same to you.”

Just a few weeks after gaining freedom to live his life any way he could, the former Deviant Hunter—now deviant—wanted more moments like this. The magnitudes of choices life presented him with were often daunting, but this choice here was not difficult. With his friend—his very first friend—and his dog (their dog?), he could say that he loved being in this house.

No, no, not house.

_Home._

He loved this home.

* * *

Published: 12/15/20

A/N: If you like my work, find me on [**Twitter: el_rey_ciervo**](https://twitter.com/el_rey_ciervo) or [**Tumblr: elreyciervo**](https://elreyciervo.tumblr.com/) to chat!


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